Change and cope without male leadership in children's institution (9)
I believe the answer is:
orphanage
'institution' is the definition.
(orphanage is a kind of institution)
'change and cope without male' is the wordplay.
'change' becomes 'orphan' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'cope' becomes 'manage' (both can mean to get by).
'without' suggests deleting specific letters.
'male' becomes 'man' (man is a kind of male).
'manage' with 'man' taken away is 'age'.
'orphan'+'age'='ORPHANAGE'
'leadership in children's' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for orphanage that I've seen before include "building" , "Parentless children's institution" , "home for kids" , "Children's home" , "Institution for parentless or abandoned children" .)